Hailed a “superb ensemble” by New Music Connoisseur, New York-based Sospiro Winds has established itself as an exciting new force on the chamber music scene. Originally formed in 2004, the ensemble began performing while at the Yale School of Music. Since then, Sospiro has continued its efforts to bring the wind quintet repertoire to many varied audiences throughout the United States. This season, Sospiro joins the roster of Musical Connections, a pilot program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Institute of Music, and participates in Chamber Music Northwest’s Protege Project in Portland, OR. The ensemble was a finalist in the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and won the Silver Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2007. Announced as winners of the Yale Chamber Music Competion in 2006, Sospiro performed on the Chamber Music Society at Yale Concert Series. Sospiro has been heard on WSHU performing new music by Nicholas Skedgell; the group has also worked with members of the Moran Wind Quintet and the Chiara String Quartet and performed at the Chamber Music Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Interested in promoting new repertoire for the wind quintet, the ensemble has premiered new works by Lembit Beecher, James Borchers, Donald Hagar, and with the aide of a grant by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Matthew Barnson. In 2008, Sospiro celebrated its Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall presented by the Yale at Carnegie Series. Other projects in recent seasons have include performances presented by Music Mondays, Bedford Chamber Concerts, Wintergreen Performing Arts (Virginia), Eupraxia Arts & Music Collective, Elderconcerts at Evergreen Woods, the Second Instrumental Unit and Trinity Church Wall Street on its Concerts-at-One series. Sospiro Winds consists of wind soloists Kelli Kathman (flute), James Austin Smith (oboe), Romie de Guise-Langlois (clarinet), Adrian Morejon (bassoon) and Alana Vegter (horn).